罗马帝国城市女庇护人探析——兼论帝国时期公共生活中的性别关系

An Analysis of the Female Civic Patronesses and the Gender Relations in Public Life in the Roman Empire

本文对古罗马社会的城市女庇护人进行考察,并以此为基础对罗马帝国时期公共生活中的性别关系和罗马上层女性的社会地位加以分析探讨。共和时期,罗马人在对外扩张的过程中与其他地区城市建立了庇护关系,有权势的罗马贵族成为城市庇护人。进入帝国后,除男性权贵外,上层女性也被选为城市庇护人。女性当选城市庇护人可看作罗马社会对上层女性的认可。然而,对城市女庇护人及其家庭情况的考察表明,城市女庇护人较高的社会地位离不开其家族男性权力的支撑,女性对男性的依附在上层社会的两性关系中更加隐蔽,藏于上层女性享有较高社会地位的表象之后。

This paper investigates gender relations and social status of upper-class women in public life under the Roman Empire by focusing on civic patronesses.In the Republican period,the Romans built patronal relationship with other areas in the process of expansion and powerful Roman aristocrats acted as civic patrons.During the imperial period,upper-class women were also appointed to be civic patrons,which could be viewed as the recognition of their status.Nevertheless,the investigation on civic patronesses and their families demonstrates that the high position of these women was supported by the power of their male family members.In the upper-class,women’s dependence on men was concealed underneath the ostensibly high social status of the upper-class women.